Prosecutors in South Korea want to send a restaurant owner to prison for one year. This restaurant is very famous and has two Michelin stars. It is in the Gangnam area of Seoul. The problem is that the restaurant served a dessert with ants on top. In South Korea, ants are not allowed in food.
The restaurant served this dessert many times. Prosecutors say they sold it 12,200 times over four years. They think the restaurant made 120 million won from these sales. To make the dessert, the kitchen used about 49,000 dried ants. The restaurant bought these ants from the United States and Thailand.
South Korean law is very strict about food safety. Only 10 types of insects are legal to eat. These include grasshoppers and mealworms, but ants are not on the list. The chef said he used ants to make a special taste. He learned this technique in the United States and Europe. He said he did not know that using ants was illegal in South Korea.
The restaurant disagrees with some of the numbers. They say not all customers wanted the ants. The prosecution also wants the company to pay a fine of 20 million won. Now, a court will decide the case. The judge will decide if the owner goes to prison and if the company pays the fine. This case shows that chefs must follow local laws, even if they use new ideas from other countries.